Voices: Kristen Harad, On Running Effective Seminars

Kristin Harad is the founder of VitaVie Financial Planning in San Francisco.

I use seminar marketing for a number of reasons. It allows me to convey my personality, style and knowledge to a number of potential clients at once, and there’s a strong potential for a high return on my investment. But to use seminars effectively, advisers need to keep a few issues in mind.

First, make sure your marketing is geared toward your target audience. This will depend on your promotional strategy, and getting as many of the right people interested as possible. You have to know your audience, understand your niche and structure the event with them in mind.

Most of my work, for example, is with expectant parents. Holding the event on a weekend and providing on-site childcare goes a long way toward getting my target audience to attend. Anticipate the excuses potential clients may have for not attending, and take measures to eliminate them. Don’t give them any reason not to come to your event.

Second, find ways to hook prospective clients on the day of the seminar: the objective of the seminar should always be to sign people up for a consultation before they leave. The biggest mistake advisers can make at these events is failing to ask for that commitment from their attendees. That seems like such obvious oversight, but it happens all the time. Limiting supplemental materials — which can be more distracting than educational — and clearly communicating what you want them to do next can help steer attendees in the right direction.

The keystone to success in all these areas is commitment. You have to inspire your prospective clients to commit to coming to the seminar and then commit to registering for a consultation. This idea of commitment is a factor in the decision whether or not to charge for admission. While the idea of a free seminar may seem appealing, it doesn’t reinforce the commitment to attend. Incentives, such as scarcity and some form of deposit, are more effective. By establishing that there’s limited space at the event and by charging even a nominal fee for backing out of a reservation, you can help ensure that those who register for the event actually attend.

Most of all, put in the time and effort to prepare properly. Get the necessary paper work in place: sign-in sheets, workshop evaluations and personal-data collection. Have your schedule at hand and, if need be, an assistant to help manage appointments.

Too often advisers neglect these kinds of measures, and they pay the price because of it. You have a small window of time to ride the wave of your interaction with the attendees. You put all the work in to getting to this point; make sure you capitalize on it.

Add a Comment

About Financial Adviser

The Wealth Manager blog looks at issues that matter to wealth managers, financial planners and other investment professionals. It offers a sampling of the insights, advice and other coverage available at Wealth Management, a new specialized section of wsj.com that is led by editors Kevin Noblet and Patrick Graham. Visit the section here. Wealth Management publishes a newsletter, Morning Call, that provides a daily summary of items of interest to financial advisers. Sign up for Wealth Management’s Morning Call here. Write to us at wealthmanagerinquiries@dowjones.com.